Tag Archives: New Coach Inn

I always get the P’s on the metro mixed up; Percy Main, Pelaw and Palmersville may as well all be on the moon as far as I’m concerned. None of them are anywhere near anywhere I frequent. Which is why the Wine & Beer Metro Tour has been so great, It’s taken me to places I’ve never been before.

It was never one of the original Metro stations; this Johnny come lately opened 1986, nearly six years after the rest of the Metro line however it was the first station to feature new ticket machines and smartcard validators in 2011. Why? Who knows?

It’s a real shame that The Wheatsheaf Pub, which is visual distance from the metro (a 3 minute walk at most) has shut as that would have been everything we look for in a WBMT pub, location wise. However the only other option is to turn left instead of right out the station on Great Lime Road and walk the best part of a mile to find The New Coach Inn.

My first impression when we first walked in (at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon) was ‘wow, that’s green’ they seem to have these green neon lights above the bar which reminds me of Liquid Nightclub in the Bigg Market, which is particularly bizarre in a quiet suburb or North Tyneside.

Don’t get me wrong, the green lights aside it’s nicely decorated; nice light wood tables and lots of natural day light and open space. It does declare it’s self as a ‘bar and restaurant’ and like most places who lay this claim, it’s more restaurant than bar.

There was no ale on offer at all, so the male contingent of our party settled for two pints of Coors Light, myself ‘the usual’ (a medium glass of white wine) and my mum and lime and soda which came to about £12.

Like you can always judge a man by his shoes, you can always judge a pub by it’s toilet and these ones were particularly uncared for. For a pub that size why on earth would you think that only 2 cubicles would suffice (and one of them was blocked when we went). I would say the only saving grace this place has is the rather swanky looking beer garden out the back – for the one day a year that it’s warm enough to sit outside

The problem with this place is it’s built it’s self to service the local housing estates and to be exactly what the people in the area want. Somewhere they can go for a few drinks on a Friday or Saturday night, or a meal with their family. It’s not the kind of place you can stumble across (mainly because it’s so bloody bar from the metro station) and consider it a hidden gem that you must go and rave to all your friends about.